


Learning To Fly

by TracedInAir



Series: Diakko Week 2020 [4]
Category: Little Witch Academia, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bagon is the perfect Pokemon for Akko and you will never convince me otherwise, Coming of Age, F/F, POV Second Person, Pokemon AU, Wanton cruelty to paragraph breaks and scene breaks, ever wanted to read 5000 words from the POV of a Pokemon?, well now you can!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26143618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TracedInAir/pseuds/TracedInAir
Summary: Bagon, the Rock Head Pokémon.All Bagons dream of one day flying. Their heads grow as tough as steel to protect themselves from their doomed efforts.They practice flying by throwing themselves off cliffs.Written for Diakko Week 2020 - Day 4: AU
Relationships: Diana Cavendish/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
Series: Diakko Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1893886
Comments: 21
Kudos: 95





	Learning To Fly

Your first memory is of watching your mother fly.

She’s so happy. You can feel her joy even from here on the ground as she whirls and spins through the air. It’s as if she could fly and fly for the rest of her life and never need anything else to be happy.

You wish you could fly too.

She knows this, and she puts you on her back, lifting you gently into the sky.

It’s wonderful.

You know it’s not _the same,_ you can feel how controlled her flying is, making sure you’re safe and protected. But still, it’s the happiest moment of your life.

But you cannot stop wishing that it was _you_ flying, feeling the wind under your wings. You don’t even have wings. Only these small stubby arms. Arms that could never lift your body into the air, no matter how you try. Arms that could never soar gracefully, like her wings can.

* * *

Your next memories are all the same. You’re trying to fly.

You gave up trying to flap your useless, tiny arms. You had a better idea. You climb up to the top of a high rock, and you leap into the air.

You fly.

For less than a second.

It’s not _enough._ The landing hurt, but not as much as it hurt to not be flying.

You try again.

And again.

Each time you _swear_ you last longer in the air before hitting the ground, but you know it’s not true. You know that you are not flying.

You find a bigger rock.

You jump off that rock.

You fly.

Then you don’t.

* * *

She’s angry with you, and you’re angry too. Why can’t she understand how important it is to you? How you _need_ to be able to fly, like she can.

You resent that she can fly.

You try to fly again, but your heart isn’t really in it. You jump off a small rock, and you’re barely even surprised when you land back on the ground.

You try a few more times, but each time feels more and more pointless. You can’t fly. You’ll never be able to fly.

You figure you should apologise, in some way, but you don’t know where she is.

You explore. Your home is large, the mountains and caves all belong to you, you know. There are monsters in the caves, but none that would dare threaten you while she is there, promising fiery vengeance.

You continue to explore. Why can’t you find her? You’d never really thought about where she goes when she leaves, only that she always returns with food for you. Maybe you could find food for her, would that be enough to make up for it?

You turn a corner, and come across a strange sight.

There are two creatures there. They don’t look like anything else that lives in the mountain. They’re facing one another, each holding a strange red and white ball.

“Give it up,” one says. You don’t know what that means.

The other one throws her ball, and to your shock, an enormous bird appears from it, far larger than the ball that contained it.

The one that spoke throws her own ball, and a large mechanical creature with four spiky legs, the same shade of blue as you, appears.

They fight.

The bird is losing.

“Why are you even trying? You know you can’t stop me,” the way they speak is so strange. So different from how she speaks to you.

The one who hasn’t spoken grits her teeth, she raises her arm, clearly straining from the exhaustion.

You can see a small stone at her wrist, perfectly round, glinting in the light with the same colour as the bird who is fighting for her.

But it’s cracked. Damaged. Broken. You see her opponent’s eyes widen. “Don’t!”

She touches her fingers to the stone.

An explosion blasts forth, both from the stone and the bird that shares its colour.

Something has gone wrong.

The explosion of energy overwhelms all around it, burning through the rock of the cave wall. You lower your head, hoping it will be enough to protect you.

Then she is there.

Her wings move with a speed you have never seen before, even though you have watched her fly every day since you were born.

She is between you and the explosion.

You remember nothing else.

* * *

Your next memory is of your mother, not moving.

* * *

You can hear loud noises. You don’t care. Those noises are not your mother.

Your mother who is cold.

Your mother who is not moving.

Your mother who _would_ be moving if not for you.

You hear a noise near to you, and you shy away from it. The noise gets louder, “There’s one here! It’s alive!”

A creature appears next to you. It’s small. Bigger than you, but much smaller than the other creatures like it. Like the two you saw earlier. Its eyes are red. Red like the colour that streamed behind the head of the one who touched the stone.

Red like the one who took your mother.

You try to bite her.

She doesn’t run away.

She places her hand on your head, and you try to hit her hand with your head. “Shhh,” she whispers. “I’m sorry.”

You don’t know what that means.

You want her to go away.

You charge into her, ramming your thick head into her stomach.

She falls over, and you can hear her crying in pain.

Louder, deeper voices cry out, and you hear running feet.

You try to bite her again.

Before you can, a much larger creature is there, holding one of those red balls. It throws it at you.

* * *

Your next memory is of sitting in front of that strange creature with the red eyes.

She isn’t scared of you.

Why isn’t she scared of you?

Where is your mother?

She puts her hand on your head again.

You let her.

She gently pets your head. You can barely feel it, your skull is so thick. You’d never noticed that before now. You think that it helped when you tried to fly, and landed on your head.

You wish you could fly.

You’re so selfish for wishing that, when you should be wishing that your mother was alive.

“It’s OK,” she says. You wish you knew what that meant. She pets your head again. You twist your head out of the way, and her hand lands on your neck. It feels much nicer there. You hope she realises.

She does.

She scratches the back of your neck, and you sit down, leaning into her hand. “Guess that makes sense, can’t feel much through that big helmet, huh?” she says.

Why do these creatures speak in such strange ways, with so many sounds?

She scratches your neck again, and you decide that it’s worth it.

* * *

All of your memories are with her now. She is always there. Always with you. Sometimes you see the larger creature that hit you with the red ball. You should probably be angry with him, but you understand what he was doing. He was doing the same thing your mother did for you.

She takes you everywhere. She brings you with her when she sees the other creatures like her, all her size.

They seem scared by you, confused. 

You walk up to one of them.

He hits you.

She hits him.

They’re all hitting each other. You don’t know why.

Later the big one is talking to her. You can’t understand what he says, but he sounds the same as your mother did when you tried to fly from the big rock.

The next day, he brings her something strange.

It’s a big, thick thing. When he opens it, it’s filled with small, thin things. The small, thin things have images on them. Some of them look like creatures you’ve seen before, back when you lived on the mountain.

He quickly flips through the thin things, and you see a thing that looks like… you. You realise the thing in front of you looks just like you do when you see yourself reflected in the water.

She seems as shocked as you. You can see the excitement as her father talks to her, pointing at the strange symbols next to the image of you. You have no idea what they mean, but she seems to know.

She looks at the symbols for the next half hour, idly patting the back of your neck while she does so. You can see her eyes intently moving, scanning over the strange symbols.

She turns to you, “You’re a Bagon! Hi, Bagon!”

* * *

You don’t know what those symbols or that image of you told her, but your days get much better. She learns that you love to be patted and scratched on your belly, as well as the back of your neck. She brings you different food, food that tastes much better than what you’d been eating since you met her.

And always, she calls you “Bagon.” You suppose that must be your name now. You like it when she calls you that name. You lose count of the number of times she calls “Bagon!” with that bright voice of hers, and you come running to her side on your stubby legs.

It’s night. The both of you should be asleep, but you’re outside, sitting on the roof of the place you now call home.

“You want to fly, don’t you?” she says. You think you recognise one of the things she says. “It said in that book Otou-san gave me that all Bagons dream of flying one day.”

You recognise your name, and the word ‘fly.’ You look down sadly. Bagon cannot fly. You cannot fly.

She picks you up, and holds you aloft, tilting you backwards so you can see the expanse of stars above. Endless. Beautiful.

“I wish I could fly too,” she whispers to you.

“And one day, we both will.”

* * *

One day, she sits down with you in front of a small box. The box is strange, the face pointed towards you is black, and slightly curved. You can’t hide your shock when she touches something next to the box, and the black face flickers, and images start appearing on it.

They’re not like the image of yourself you saw earlier. They’re moving. It’s like the world around you, but only inside this box.

“I wanna introduce you to someone!” she says.

You look at the images. A giant bird is flying. It’s like how your mother flew, but somehow more daring. It performs flips, banks and turns that even your mother could never have achieved. It looks like the bird from-

You blank out the memory.

It doesn’t anyway. That bird didn’t have blue feathers like this one does. That bird looked broken and defeated, this one looks… majestic. That bird-

The image changes, and you see her face.

It’s her.

You scream.

She’s confused. She turns to you, wondering what’s wrong.

You keep screaming. You shut your eyes, turning away from the _horrible_ box with the _horrible_ image of the _horrible_ woman.

You hear her moving, and the sound stops coming from the box. Her hand comes to rest on the back of your neck. “Hey, it’s alright. Guess you’re not as big a fan of Shiny Chariot as me, huh?” she says.

You can hear that her voice is somewhat sad, and you’re sorry for making her sad.

Then you remember that she showed you the awful woman, and you’re not sorry.

Well, you’re sorry enough to let her keep petting your neck.

* * *

She grows up, and so do you.

You’re stronger now, much stronger than you thought.

The two of you fight together a lot, battling against other kids her age.

You always win.

It’s not even close.

The others start to resent her. You can tell. They don’t spend time with her. They shout at her after you beat the creatures they send to fight you.

Eventually no one will fight with either of you anymore.

She tries to pretend it doesn’t upset her, but you know better.

“One day,” she says to you, “we’ll do the league challenge. And we’ll beat everyone! _Then_ they’ll see!”

You don’t know what that means, but you can see the fire burning in her red eyes, and you hop happily in front of her.

* * *

She’s so excited.

You’re excited too. You don’t know why, but seeing her so happy always has this effect on you. You know that soon you’ll find out why she’s so happy. Maybe it will be another long trip! Or maybe some more people to fight! Or maybe-

The two of you are in a strange room, unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. People dressed in white coats are running around, clearly very busy. A woman with blue hair (you learned the word hair!) and a white coat is standing at the front, talking to her, and some other people around her age.

You have no idea what she’s saying.

A man in a coat walks up to her, and says something.

“Nope, he stays,” she crosses her arms.

The man tries to say something more, but another girl, with strange multi-coloured hair says something else.

She turns around, with a fury you’ve never seen before, and starts shouting at the other girl. “Untrained!? I’ll show you how untrained he is! I’ll fight you right here!”

The other girl sighs, and several people in the room start laughing. You don’t know why. People who laugh at her tend to be shut up by you very quickly. You’re excited now, maybe you’ll get to fight again!

The other girl seems to ignore her, but she keeps shouting, and eventually you see a fire in those blue eyes. The same fire that’s so familiar to you in red ones.

“If it will keep you from interrupting further, then I will accept your challenge.”

She leaps into the air, “Yay! I’ll show you, Miss Snooty Pants!”

You realise a fight is coming. You’re ready. You’ll show everyone just what you’re made of!

* * *

You lost.

Badly.

The small white creature that pranced on four legs should have been no match for you. You should have been able to take it out in a single bite.

But it was fast. So fast. Every time you thought you landed a hit, it was gone. Its strangely coloured mane glowed, and you felt something you hadn’t truly in a long time.

Pain.

The attack hurt _so_ much. Waves of pink wind blew from the creature, and they _hurt_ in a way that nothing you’d fought until now had.

You struggle to stand, pushing yourself up on those tiny, _useless_ arms that can’t even _fly._

You can keep fighting.

You’ll show them.

You can’t let her down.

She’s done so much for you.

You can’t lose.

You can’t lose.

You can’t-

She recalls you into that red ball.

You feel fury. _You could have kept fighting._

* * *

Later that day, she lets you out of the ball.

You turn away from her. She didn’t let you keep fighting. She didn’t let you _prove_ to her that you would never give up.

Her hand finds the back of your neck, “I’m sorry.”

You look up, and there’s some water falling out of her eyes. You’ve never seen her do that before. You don’t like it.

“It’s not your fault we lost,” she says. “It’s mine! She’s right, I _didn’t_ train you well enough. I should have done better.” She shakes her head, and you see that fire in red eyes that you know so well. “No, I _will_ do better. You deserve it. We’ll be the best, together.”

She scratches your neck some more, and you wish you could tell her that you didn’t understand a word she said.

For the first time in your life, there is something you wish for more than flying.

You wish you could tell her that it wasn’t her fault you lost.

You wish you could tell her how sorry you are that you weren’t strong enough.

You wish you could be better for her.

* * *

You train together every day after that. She shouts things to you sometimes, and you try to understand what she means. Sometimes when she shouts something, and you react in a certain way, she gets very happy. You remember. You always remember.

When she shouts it the next time, you do the exact thing that made her so happy, and she gets even happier.

“Ember!” she calls, and you breathe deeply, shooting pellets of flame at the rock in front of you.

“Yeah!” she runs over to lift you up and spin you in the air.

You would move mountains for her, if you could.

* * *

You fight more. These opponents are like the children from home (you wonder when you started thinking of her home as home), easily beaten.

But now you have a purpose.

In each fight, you do your best to follow her instructions.

You remember her every command, and its meaning.

You will be perfect for her.

* * *

There is one opponent who is not like the others. You recognise it immediately when you meet him. He carries himself with the sureness that only great confidence brings. Just a short time ago, fighting such a foe would have had you worried, but not now.

The battle is difficult, and you relish it.

The giant snake made of rocks is agile, for its size. You make that mistake once, expecting it to be easy to hit, and are struck by its tail as it dodges quickly.

You don’t make that mistake again, and neither does she.

You learn. You adapt.

Your attacks become sharper, aiming for smaller and smaller windows in its defences.

Each one lands.

You’re battered, and you’re bruised.

But you won.

She shakes hands with the confident man in front of you, then picks you up for a hug.

You realise something in that moment. The confident man is still stronger than her, he had deliberately held himself back.

This should have scared you, but it only encouraged you.

Maybe one day, you and she can become as strong as him.

Or stronger.

* * *

Your group becomes larger.

There is one more who now travels with you. She’s small, smaller than you. She is yellow, not the yellow of your belly, but similar. Her ears are strangely long, and her zig-zagged tail is almost as big as she is.

You do not like her.

You do not like her one bit.

You do not like that she now spends less time with you, because she is there.

She says you will get used to it. You do. But you still do not like it.

The yellow thing is fast, much faster than you. You wish you didn’t feel jealous. The yellow thing can’t do anything you can do, she can’t breathe flame, she can’t bite, she can’t even fly.

But she _is_ faster than you, and that annoys you.

* * *

The next time you fight one of those strong opponents, she fights with _her_ first.

You sulk for nearly a day. Even though she did send you out against the bigger blue star and you won easily and if it was that easy then why didn’t she fight with you in the _first place._

Then she gives you your favourite food and belly scratches, and you forgive her. Just about.

* * *

You’re on a boat. You’re not sure why.

She seems uncomfortable. You’re not sure why she’s here if she’s so uncomfortable.

You see her again. The one with the blue eyes that burn the same way as her red ones.

She’s talking to someone. He looks the same age as her, but neither of them seem uncomfortable here. They look like they belong.

You turn to her, and she looks sick. She looks the same way you feel when you think of that battle where you weren’t used first.

You wish you knew why she felt like that.

* * *

The next day, she challenges the blue-eyed girl to a fight again.

You lose, again.

It’s closer, you landed a solid bite against the annoying four-legged prancing thing. You thought it would be enough, but it wasn’t.

You’re resting with her, when the blue-eyed girl sits next to her.

You feel her flinch.

“Here,” she says, and puts something on you.

You start writhing at the stranger’s touch, then you feel… soothed. Like the pain from the fight is already leaving you.

“Thank you,” you hear her say from above you.

“Think nothing of it. And if I might say, I’m truly impressed by how much the two of you have improved. You gave us quite the battle, despite the type disadvantage,” you hear from your side.

“Well it wasn’t cause of anything you said, or anything.”

You don’t know what she’s saying, but you wonder why she’s lying.

“My… apologies for that. I did not mean to cause you any offence.”

“Forget about it. We’re gonna be the best whether you say anything or not, just like Shiny Chariot!”

You hear a small intake of breath. “I would have thought you had better sense than that.”

“Huh?”

“Chariot’s battling style was… reckless. I would hate to see this little fellow,” she gives your belly a pat, “get hurt because you attempt to mimic such a foolhardy approach.”

“It’s not reckless if her Pokemon never got hurt! What would you know anyway?” You can hear her anger.

“…Good luck on your next gym battle,” the blue-eyed girl rises, walking away.

“We won’t need it!”

* * *

You didn’t.

The next fight is against what looks like your other companion, only bigger.

You probably _shouldn’t_ have felt any extra incentive because of that, but you did.

Its electric attacks bounced harmlessly off your thick head, and all your practice against your teammate had prepared you well for fighting such a quick opponent.

The one after was even easier. You’d become so good with fire. You know she’s proud of you, and it makes you so happy when each of your Embers lands perfectly.

You can beat anyone.

Maybe the two of you don’t even need to fly, because you’re already on top of the world.

* * *

She’s scared.

You know she’s trying not to be, so you don’t show any fear either, but you know her well enough to know when she’s scared.

The people with the black outfits are terrifying. The creatures they fight with are brutal. It’s nothing like any fight you’ve had before. They’re trying to kill you, you can tell.

You don’t let them.

And neither does she.

The white four-legged one fights beside you, and you’re _very_ glad that she’s finally on your side for once.

The four of you make a good team. She’s almost as accurate with her energy attacks as you are with your fire. Maybe more. It would be hard to admit if she wasn’t saving your life right now.

You don’t know why you’re fighting for your life. You remember her following the blue-eyed girl. You remember them arguing. You remember her refusing to leave. You remember her saying, “Well if they’re so dangerous, you’ll need me to back you up!”

You always knew she was this brave.

You press on. Every time you have a moment to catch your breath, they both check on the two of you, making sure you’re alright.

It’s nice to be cared for by two of them.

You wish they were together like this more.

You wish you knew why she made her look like she was sick, but you’re happy she doesn’t right now.

You hear a voice.

The voice _terrifies_ you.

It comes from all around. You can’t see anyone who has the voice.

But you know the voice.

It’s the voice you heard that day.

You want to warn her, but you can’t.

You curl up on yourself.

You can’t do this.

You can’t be strong. Not when that voice is coming from every direction and laughing so loudly.

Something attacks you, you hear her scream.

You don’t even try to dodge, you just want the voice to stop.

You see a blue metal creature, two arms raised as it floats towards you.

She leaps into the way of the attack.

You hear screaming.

It’s not her.

She can’t say anything, crumpled on the floor like that.

You feel a blind fury you have never felt before. Your body shifts. You feel yourself growing larger.

You feel a torrent of flame spew from your mouth as you charge straight for the _monster_ that hurt her.

She starts commanding you. It feels strange to be commanded by someone else. But you know she cares for her, so you listen.

You listen, and you obey, and you destroy _anyone_ who would dare to hurt her.

* * *

She still isn’t moving.

She’s sitting next to her, unmoving as well.

Your body feels strange.

A hand comes down to pat you, but you can barely feel it at all through your shell. It covers your entire body now. You realise with horror that your neck and belly can’t be scratched anymore.

You just want her to wake up.

Like your mother didn’t.

* * *

She wakes up.

You hear a gasp.

Then you hear yelling.

You remember seeing the strange water fall from her red eyes, and now it’s falling from blue. She’s still yelling at her. You remember the way her father yelled at her for fighting. It’s similar to that, but not quite.

“I’m sorry.”

The yelling stops.

“I couldn’t let him get hurt anymore.”

She throws herself at her, wrapping her arms around her. You want to be there too. You try to jump up, but your new body is too large, and you land on the floor loudly.

She looks over and sees you.

“Hey! You’re OK!”

Then she jumps down and wraps her arms around you, and you can’t quite feel it, but it’s still the most wonderful feeling in the world.

* * *

She’s cautious now.

Too cautious.

You nearly lose your next big fight because she has you sit back so much. Your new shell makes that a lot easier, but she misses several openings to attack.

You want to attack, want to show her that you’re not going to let her get hurt again, but following her instructions is more important.

You want her to trust you.

You’re surprised when she offers to help. Offers to let you battle against the four-legged white creature (which is also larger now? When did that happen?) to try and get used to your new body.

You battle a lot.

You don’t _win,_ but slowly, you can feel yourselves regaining what you had. She’s calling for attacks the instant you see the opening, she’s reacting quickly to your foe’s attacks, and the two of you both start to find ways to use your new shell, both for defence and offense.

It was an exhausting day, but it was worth it.

“Thank you,” you hear her say, quietly. “For everything.”

“Think nothing of it.”

“But I do!” her voice is different, pleading, almost. “I think of it a lot! I think of _you_ a lot! I can’t-” she growls in frustration at herself, “Nothing makes sense!”

“Does it have to?” she presses her lips softly to her cheek.

She stands there, dumbstruck, raising a hand to gently touch her cheek where those lips had been.

“Good luck with your next gym battle.”

* * *

You fought the monsters in black again.

You promise this time you won’t let her down.

She’s with someone else this time. Someone you’ve seen a few times before, the older woman with strange blue hair, but she isn't wearing the white coat. She’s unsettling to you, but you don’t know why.

The two of them make their way through the building. You keep getting lost, but the blue-haired woman knows where she’s going, she leads the two of you well.

Finally, you see her.

The woman from so long ago. The one with the voice that terrifies you.

You’re not scared this time. You stand strong against her.

But she isn’t even fighting, she just smiles. “Would you like me to show you something _most_ fascinating?”

Something in her hand clicks.

You see a black screen come alive with images. It’s like the last time, only worse.

You see it again. The woman with the red hair raising her hand to the broken stone.

You don’t flinch away. You can’t. You _won’t._ Not while she’s relying on you.

But you’re not the one who gives up this time.

She breaks. She drops to the floor. “You’re lying… it can’t be real… right?”

The blue-haired woman won’t meet her eyes.

She runs, and you follow her.

You wish you knew why she was so upset.

You wish you could make it better.

* * *

She’s sitting on a bench, and she won’t move.

You try nuzzling her ankles.

You try _anything._

Nothing works.

You’ve never seen her like this. She’s always been so vibrant, so filled with life.

Right now, she looks just like your mother, except the fact she’s still breathing.

You wish you knew what to do.

You hear the sound of running feet.

 _She’s_ there.

You hope, hope _desperately_ that she knows what to do.

She does.

You don’t understand a word she says. You can’t. But somehow, she brings her back. She _brings her back_ and you’ve never been more grateful to another being than you are now.

You wish she knew. You wish you could _explain_ to her just how grateful you are for what she’s done, then her blue eyes meet yours, and her hand trails down to your shell.

You realise she knows.

You realise they’ve both always known.

You feel your body starting to grow.

* * *

You

Are

_Flying_

* * *

And she’s flying too. With you. Like she always has been.

And with her.

You feel the weight of two bodies on your back, and you climb higher, roaring with joy.

You hear them both laughing with excitement above you. You wish you could do this forever.

You realise that you can, and you will.

* * *

Nothing can stand up against you now. Not when you stand together with her and she stands together with _her_ and _you can fly._

You’re fighting her. The woman who broke you, and who broke her.

Long ago, you would have wanted to break her too.

But you don’t anymore. It’s no longer about that.

It’s about the _thrill_ of flying, of dodging away from the enormous four-legged metal monstrosity that you remember from so long ago. Of launching a blast of flame directly at it and hearing her celebrate when it lands cleanly.

“How!? How are you still opposing me? Your spirit should be _destroyed!”_

“It was,” she said, smiling with confidence as you bank out of the way of a crushing attack.

“What have you left to believe in now!?”

You dive towards your foe, roaring as flame fills your mouth.

“Someone who believes in me.”

* * *

It’s no surprise who’s waiting for you at the end.

You always knew it would be her.

The battles to this point have been gruelling, but they were all just preparation. This was all that mattered.

You watched from the sidelines as your allies fought hers. You cheered in celebration for each success, even when the annoying yellow one managed to take out the graceful water serpent.

You knew your time would come.

Five had come and gone for each. They smiled at each other, it was always going to come down to this.

“Go! Salamence!” she yelled, and you leapt into the arena with a triumphant roar, taking to the skies as the white horse ran on opposite you.

* * *

You lost.

It was close, _so close,_ but you lost.

It didn’t matter.

It might have mattered some time ago, but now, all you could care about was the thrill. The exhilaration that came when you battled at her side and she battled at yours.

You saw her shyly walk towards the woman who’d defeated the two of you, long after the excitement had died down. You realised, as you watched their lips press together, that she knew it didn’t matter either.

What mattered is you’d learned to fly together.

**Author's Note:**

> idk man I'm still not sure this fic isn't just a fever dream.
> 
> Comments / reviews appreciated as always!


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